SAN DIEGO—The 19-year-old suspect in Saturday’s Poway synagogue shooting, John T. Earnest, which left one person dead and three injured, is the product of a seemingly tight-knit family with strong ties to the San Diego community, although online postings suggest a preoccupation with advancing a revolution to preserve the European race, writes The San Diego Union Tribune.
His actions appear to have been revealed in an open letter, published on Internet forum which is a photo-based website where people can create and moderate their own boards. Because of its limited rules, it is sometimes used anonymously by members of the far-right, white nationalist movement.
The missive is riddled with strong language, hate speech and anti-Semitic epithets. In it, the author paints himself as a martyr for white people and writes that he hates “anyone who seeks the destruction of my race.”
He also claims to have previously set fire to an Escondido mosque, and that he did so in support of accused New Zealand Christchurch shooter Brenton Tarrant. Tarrant, he says, was the catalyst for his actions.